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The Republican Party’s “K Street Project,” intended to make lobbyists pledge their allegiance to the GOP, has supposedly been shut down in the wake of the Abramoff scandal. But in the mind of Rep. Tom Reynolds, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the effort is still very much alive.

Last week, according to Roll Call, Reynolds warned a gathering of top lobbyists to refrain from donating to Democrats. “For those of you thinking about hedging your bets, I am watching you and I am going to know,” said Reynolds, according to one Republican source at the meeting. “We will have no choice but to report to the Republican Conference any changes in your pattern of giving,” Reynolds added, according to a second source.

Publicly threatening lobbyists is likely not to the best PR move for Reynolds in light of Bob Ney’s guilty plea last week. But it’s fitting behavior for a man who once called Tom DeLay “a darn good mentor of mine.”

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